Engineer yourself : https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2025/02/17/social-engineering-3/
# Social Engineering
So not to invoke too much weird conspiracy theories or whatever, trying to think about this more sociologically and philosophically, I like this idea of thinking about social engineering, being a social engineer etc. 
## Thank god for sociology
First, I’m starting more and more… That my studies and deep dive into sociology has actually yielded amazing fortunes.
First, ironically enough, studying sociology and teaching me to “de-matrix” myself has made me a lot financially richer. Like insanely a lot.
For example, I’m pretty certain and committed to the idea that anybody who got in early on bitcoin, like I did in 2018, when bitcoin was only $6999 a coin, you kind of needed a little bit of disconnection from reality, etc. For example, starting to unlearn ideas of currency etc., back in 2017 when I was zenning out in Vietnam  was certainly one of the greatest windfalls in my life. 
People like to talk a lot about “reality,” perhaps it is better to think about first principles physics etc.  for example, I’ve been doing another deep dive into my best friend Aristotle, and one of the greatest things about Aristotle, and honestly the funny thing is that nobody criticizes the great Aristotle, because he had his head screwed on well, the general idea is that I think the best way to profit in life is to think first principles, back to basics.
For example, Aristotle in his ethics, talks about chief goods, which essentially means the end goals or desires that we have of something.
first principles,  thinking from first principles maybe one of the greatest superpowers of Elon Musk. For example, if you think about Tesla; rather than thinking about “how to make a better car“, which is just the Toyota kaizen Way  i’m making each generation of the car about 3% better indefinitely, a first principles approach is like asking the question “what *should* a car be and what should a car look like?”
Other example with Steve Jobs, the original first principles thinker; when he was prototyping and imagining the first iPhone, rather than thinking by analogy, which is like how do we take a pre-existing blackberry and make it “better“, he reimagined the whole thing. He had the genius idea that it should just be all screen, And to get rid of the physical keyboard, even though people were addicted to their crack berries with the physical keys. I still remember in the early days when I was in high school, even an early college, when the original iPhone came out, people will talk about how their words per minute on the blackberry was like 1 billion times faster. But now, once again thinking about first principles, I never type anything with my fingers on my thumbs anymore, only voice dictation. Why? Voice dictation is still like 1000 times faster than typing on a keyboard and certainly your thumbs. 
I’m pretty convinced that the only reason people don’t use voice dictation more is because they are fearful of looking stupid. And this is where I have found it insanely beneficial to spend a lot of time traveling being in different countries etc., other countries they use voice dictation like almost 100% at the time. ese, who often walk around the grocery store with two brand new iPhone pros that done each other, hand holding it, is that they have mastered the art of voice dictation out loud, with zero shame.
If anything, the only reason why people hate mainland Chinese people is that they wish they were them; full of zero concerns about other people their perceptions, all wearing Louis Vuitton, and they really don’t care about what other people think about them. And they’re like 1 trillion times richer than you. 
## Courage of being outside, the courage of social life 
